


The Gift of Gloves

by Measured



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 04:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1631984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tajima's antics over winter break do not amuse Abe and Mihashi finds a place to belong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gift of Gloves

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thanks to Ammy for the betawork and Yukeh for holding my hand throughout the process, making the character guide that I made good use of and listening to me fret about it not being any good, as well as giving pointers.
> 
> Written for Drae

 

 

It had been grey and overcast since November no snow had fallen even as it neared the winter break .Most everybody thought they were in for a snowless break and dressed accordingly. Instead of bundling up like little Arctic explorers, they settled for just a light coat and gloves at most. All Except for Mihashi, at least, who had enough padding from snowpants and boots and winter coats to survive a nuclear winter. Miashi's mother just did not take chances with her boy and wouldn't see of him coming down sick. (Though at this point, it was a far greater danger that Mihashi would fall over and be unable to get back up than ever catch cold)

Abe himself had settled for a coat and a baseball cap. His mother never asked if he put on warmer clothes, so he never did. Cold didn't bother him that much anyways. Mihashi waddled beside Abe draped in many layers. He made a _swish swish_ sound as he walked.

It had seemed a peaceful, albeit cold and snowy day until a shriek cut through air and projectiles began sailing towards unsuspecting students. There had been two things that Abe didn't expect to happen that day: one, for the weatherman to be entirely wrong and for there to be enough snow that even Momokan's certified _even with hypothermia isn't a good enough excuse_ would fall through, and two, that snowball with Tajima's name written all over it would hit him squarely in the head.

In truth, he had expected the latter, because when around Tajima one got accustomed to sexual perversions and snowballs to the head, but he didn't expect it to be _his_ head that was hit. Usually it was Hanai who felt the most of Tajima's wrath. It was as if he was the lightning rod to Tajima's weird. Daily it seemed he was hiding away condoms and lube or convincing Tajima _not_ to bring his porn collection to school for a class project. All in all it was just another day in the life of Hanai, certified protector of the team from Tajima. It was all part of the little-known fine print of being the other half of Hanai's battery.

So Abe would've expected it if Tajima had shoved snow down Hanai's pants _again_ or pushed Izumi into a snowbank. (Both of which he did.) But Tajima waging war on him wasn't high on that list of expectations.

"A-Abe-kun!" Mihashi gasped. Mihashi had that startled, bird-like expression as he watched in abject horror. Abe stood still a very long minute as he felt the wet snow drip from his hair down his neck.

"You've done it now, you're going down, Tajima!" Izumi said from the snowbank that Tajima had pushed him into. Izumi always did make the most astute, biting remarks and now was exactly the time to prove him right.

Mihashi stood frozen in his place from the threat of incoming snowballs. He twitched nervously and glanced around for signs of a threat.

"We're going to have to work together. It's time for revenge."

"R-revenge?" Mihashi said. "But-"

Abe gave a longsuffering sigh and glared at his pitcher. Mihashi's face was very red - from the weather and constant wind or some form of perpetual embarrassment, Abe couldn't tell. 

"You're the ace pitcher," Abe hissed, as he tried quite unsuccessfully to keep his anger level at a minimum. "You can do it."

"I-I can do it," Mihashi repeated slowly.

"Yes, you _can_."

Mihashi bent to pick up a snowball as another projectile sailed over them. Tajima had started a full-fledged war and seemed determined to bring every single class into it. He had forced Hanai to join in on his side, possibly through blackmail (though Abe doubted Hanai had any porn for Tajima to share with the team, anything of Hanai's would most definitely be gifts from Tajima's ever present stash).

Abe muttered a _hurry up, will you_ and Mihashi popped up with his snowball, which looked more like a snowsquare or snowpile than an actual ball.

Abe wanted to facepalm. The snowball was misshapen and done completely wrong. Something like that would never fly.

He wanted to scream _You're doing it wrong!_ but doing so would only make Mihashi into a cowering mess of nerves. That didn't stop him from doing it, however. 

"I'll make them, you just _throw them_."

Mihashi gulped and nodded too fast. Abe bent down and packed the snow until they'd sail just straight and under. 

"Revenge," Abe whispered. "Just pretend it's baseball. Instead of pitching it at me, you're pitching it at Tajima's face."

"Tajima's face? But-"

"Aim for the freckles!"

That command was ill-fated, especially for poor Izumi.

* * *

After the epic war of the classes where many a classmate went home with wet pants, the next battle was thought by all (or at least Izumi) to be even fiercer than the last.

But this time Tajima had gone to more peaceful pursuits.

There was a whole squad of them. A anatomically correct Momokan snowman and a Shiego one with a carrot nose. Between them was a Shino'oka snowman who was also anatomically correct, but not to the same extent as Momokan's.

The Abe snowman had an angry expression, with two sticks forming a frowny expression. His snowman was holding little stick hands of the more diminutive, Mihashi snowman who had a scared expression and even an open `o' mouth. Saekeguchi and Suyama were in a snowball BFF huddle while the Mizutani and Izumi looked like they were going to make a run for Vegas. Oki and Nishihiro were chilling at the end of the snowman crowd. Abe didn't want to know why the Tajima snowman was _behind_ the Hanai snowman. When it came to Tajima, it was better just to _not ask_.

"Abe-kun..."

Embarrassing as it was, Abe didn't throttle Tajima. Guys held hands all the time. There was nothing wrong with it. No, it wasn't the hand-holding so much as the _Love Love Battery Pair!_ written in the snow beside it. ( _that_ wasn't Tajima's doing, but signed and hearted by Momokan herself. Abe was never looking at her suggestions the same way again.)

Mihashi's face was bright red again, and Abe thought his face would be warm, not cold from the weather. He was almost tempted to touch Mihashi's face. It was an odd thought, a stray thought that fell like a bit of snow and melted away just as quickly.

Mihashi shuddered and clutched his hands together for some form of warmth and comfort. They were bare, bony and very white. Whether he'd lost his gloves along the way or had forgotten them altogether, Abe didn't know. What he _did_ know was that without his guarded and occasional fits of mother-hen like nagging, Mihashi was bound to have some unfortunate thing occur to him.

Abe sighed and peeled off his gloves. 

"Here," he said. 

Mihashi's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"I can't let a pitcher hurt his hands. Momokan will slaughter me if I do," Abe mumbled. He looked away, to dying trees and piles of snow that would soon be melting into another season and another class and another round of games to be played again. 

When he looked back, Abe didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this. Mihashi looked tender, and deeply moved by the gesture. He clung to the gloves like they were some precious treasure and not the perfectly ordinary, slightly used gloves that they were.

"I'm sorry, mine got wet- I-I promise I'll return them tomorrow."

Abe shrugged. "Keep them. I have another pair at home."

"Really?" Mihashi smiled. It wasn't a nervous smile, but a confident, sunshine-filled smile that sent an unwarranted tingle through Abe.

"Do what you like," Abe said.

Their conversation was cut short abruptly when, for the second time that week, a snowball collided with the back of his head.

And thus the war continued

* * *

After a day of wet snow and snow forts and the last snowball war where Tajima got his just desserts and was pelted in snowballs, Mihashi was soaked. 

Mihashi dried the gloves out by the furnace grate. His mother had offered to dry them, but he wasn't about to take the chance that Abe-kun's gloves would shrink. Mihashi tried to settle down the worries in his mind that the gloves might get moldy, that they might never dry or somehow get lost (Or even stolen away by aliens - all who were green and had Tajima's face and he ran and looked under his bed for dirty magazines before finally sniggering and running off with these treasured gift-gloves.)

Mihashi couldn't remember how long had it been since he'd last thrown a snowball. How many times he'd walked home alone and passed other children playing, ones that he didn't dare to bother with requests to join along. Two winters at least had been spent alone with cocoa and his mother's chatter while seemingly every other child in the world was outside, in a group, _included_. 

But this year there had been games and parties and practices to fill those once empty hours spent throwing the ball simply for the love of the feel in his hands. This year had snowball fights and snowman and gloves from Abe-kun.

Momokan had (with Chiyo-chan's assistance) snapped a picture of her boys in all their snow-streaked glory. Most of them were missing hats and many had snow in their hair (and many other plances, including their pants). Mihashi remembered that moment, how he was nervous and warm and desperately wondering if he should be somewhere else.

Abe-kun had sighed and dragged him in. Tajima had put a hand on his shoulder, Chiyo-chan had smiled at him. And for that second before the flash gave Tajima red demon eyes and Suyama blinked and Hanai's hat fell off, just that brief instant Mihashi realized something. 

He belonged.

 


End file.
